What is a Broadcast?

Avochato offers broadcast texting, enabling you to send the same message to a large number of people.

How do I send Broadcasts?

To get started, navigate to the “Broadcasts” tab in the main dashboard and click “New” in the upper-right hand corner.

Draft your message:

First, compose the content of your broadcast.

Broadcast messages, like all messages, are counted in segments. The “Estimated Cost” will tell you approximately how many segments your broadcast will be. The counter does not take into account variable length of fields you use.

Insert Variables:

Attachments: You have the option to include a photo or media attachment in your broadcast. Text and attachments will be sent and billed as two separate messages. Media attachments must be fewer than 500 kb (larger files will be compressed). If the file is too large, it might fail to send.

Insert Template: Save time and keep company messaging consistent by using pre-saved templates for messages that are often sent. Templates can be accessed in the “Templates” dropdown below your drafted message.

Personalization: Use any saved information of an Avochato contact (ie. their birthday, favorite ice cream flavor, or whether or not they like pineapple on their pizza) when personalizing your messages and show customers you know them well.

Emojis: Add emojis to give your messages an extra “oomph” when plain text just isn’t enough.

Insert Survey: Ask customers questions over text, with each answer triggering the next question. Later on, you can export survey results or log them to spreadsheets for easier reporting.

Schedule:

Send now: Click “Send now” to have your broadcast send upon confirmation (Note: your entire audience will not receive the message instantaneously. As the broadcast sends one at a time, some recipients will receive the message later than others). The confirmation page will display the exact number of segments that will be used.

Schedule Date and Time: Click “Schedule Date and Time” to set the broadcast to send at a later date and time. All times shown are in the time zone of your computer at that given time.

Select Audience:

Once you have completed drafting your message and scheduled your send, you can then select the audience this broadcast will send to. There are five methods for selecting your recipients in Avochato:

• Upload CSV: You can bulk upload an audience using the same methods used in contact uploads (link to contact upload)

• Tags: You can choose entire groups of Contacts based on tags that you’ve set up. If you select multiple tags and someone belongs to both groups, they will not receive duplicate messages.

• Name or Mobile Number: You can add contacts by their name or phone number.

• Fields: You can select your audience via fields. This includes any custom fields you may have set up in Avochato (link to custom fields)

• Owner: Add all contacts owned by this user.

• All Contacts: Adds all contacts listed in your account.

Confirm Broadcast

The final step is to confirm the detail of your broadcast.

FAQS

Can I use Avochato to send Group Texts? No, at this time Avochato can only send and receive messages 1-to-1. Avochato’s broadcasting feature allows you to send the same message to large groups of people.

How are conversation statuses tracked within the inbox? Conversations originating from a Broadcast begin life as "Closed". This default behavior prevents inboxes from being flooded with outbound-only conversations.